Rick Grimes is a fictional character in the comic book series The Walking Dead and is portrayed by Andrew Lincoln in the television series of the same name. Created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore, the character made his debut in The Walking Dead #1 in 2003. The primary protagonist of both series, Grimes is a small town sheriff's deputy who awakens from a coma to find the world overrun with zombies.
“Rick is a much more realistic police officer. I always kind of pictured that Rick Grimes was not a police officer that had sued his gun very often. He was one of this guys that basically just walks by the local malt shop and made sure the kids were getting home on time”, Kirkman has said on the character.
The series focus on Grimes' attempts to find and protect his wife Lori and son Carl, and his role as the de facto leader of a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world. In the comic series, he remains the longest living survivor as of October 2013.
Rick Grimes has been described as an everyman character that emphasises moral codes and values. Lincoln summated: "His intentions are good, though his decisions may be bad many times. He's complicated and flawed, which I find fascinating because it makes him human. He sort of erodes over time because of the world he lives in, and there's nothing more satisfying than playing a character that changes irrevocably, so I embrace all of that.”
In both mediums, Grimes adopts a more dark and assertive nature as the story progresses. In the comic, he is faced with dealing against a murderous sociopath that claims the life of two group members, as well as an attempted suicide indirectly provoked by his close and trusted friend. Perhaps the most significant moment, he is eventually put under physical and mental torture by The Governor as a result of vulnerability and mistaken trust, ultimately causing the death of many within the group, including his wife and newborn child. The first hand witnessing of the savageness around him leads him to gradually adapt a more primal mindset, becoming less affected by violence and death (at times brutally murdering/mutilating people). Similarly, his perspective becomes increasingly deluded, as his decreased trust in people and decreased tolerance level leads him to take no issue in risking the life of an innocent. This is specifically shown as Rick struggles when eventually being given the chance to return to normalcy. He is however shown to be very protective of those who have suffered alongside him and most protective of his son, Carl, which leads to him being caring and considerate to them one moment and cold and detached the next.
